Brent Butterworth

Here's something I'm almost 100% positive you've never seen before: a tweeter horn made from glass. Waterfall Audio has been pushing its glass-walled speakers for years; here's a system I reviewed for Sound & Vision a couple of years ago. But the new Victoria Evo takes the concept to a new level.

Meridian launched its active, digital-input speakers 25 years ago, so to celebrate, the company's amping up some of its classic designs with improved components and some nice engineering refinements. That's the DSP7200SE you see above. There'll also be a top-of-the-line DSP8000SE and a smaller DSP5200SE.

Bryston's early speakers were boxy, pro-monitor-style creations, but its latest products are a lot sleeker and more home-friendly. They're also designed -- as one might expect from a Canadian audio company -- according to sound, decades-proven scientific principles. That's why the Middle T tower speaker delivered some of the best sound I heard at CES.

I wouldn't call Aerial Acoustics' speakers "chunky," but the brand's definitely not known for decor-friendly products. That's partly why I was so happy to encounter the 6T, the company's new tower speaker, which it showed in its suite at the Venetian Hotel during CES.

Since the company's founding in 1978, Thiel Audio has always divided audio signals among its woofers, midranges and tweeters using first-order (6 dB/octave) crossover circuits. But with the passing of company founder Jim Thiel in 2009, and the hiring of ex-PSB, ex-SVS engineer Mark Mason to head the company's speaker design, the company's moving beyond Thiel's original concepts.

What might have been the most anticipated speaker launch of CES definitely delivered when GoldenEar demoed its new Triton One flagship tower speaker. Walking around the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, I kept hearing showgoers rave about the Triton One's sound -- no big surprise, considering that speakers like the Triton Seven have gotten such glowing reviews in Sound & Vision and other publications.

Epos Acoustics could justify the claim that its new K-series speakers are fine-tuned for today's audio world based solely on the sleek, seamless design. But there's more to the K-series than cool looks.

Amps & Watts is a new company that specializes in wireless speakers. But this isn't your usual Bluetooth or WiFi stuff. Instead of hard-to-find buttons and cryptic controls, all of the company's speakers include a conventional remote.

I didn't expect to find any high-end tower speakers amongst the car audio stuff in the North Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center -- until I stumbled upon this new model from Hybrid Audio Technologies.